GOP Senate hopeful courting major FEC fines for alleged campaign finance violations

24 May 2024

In 2022 in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, former basketball star and far-right MAGA Republican Royce White sought the GOP nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar.

White, enthusiastically supported by "War Room" host Steve Bannon, lost the primary to fellow Republican Cecily Davis (who lost to Omar in the general election). But White is now running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, where he has been endorsed by the state's GOP. And if he wins the nomination, he will be up against centrist incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

White has been a controversial figure because of anti-gay views and antisemitic views and his fondness for conspiracy theories. According to the Daily Beast, a new source of controversy for the U.S. Senate hopeful may stem from his use of campaign funds in 2022.

Daily Beast journalists Roger Sollenberger and Mini Racker, in an article published on May 24, report that the publication has "identified" an abundance of "outlandish but previously unreported payments" from 2022 Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings that "several campaign finance experts characterized…. as potentially illegal spending."

"At five in the morning one week after Republican Royce White lost his 2022 Minnesota congressional primary," Sollenberger and Racker report, "his campaign shelled out more than $1200 in donor funds to a vendor 1800 miles away not typically associated with political expenses: an all-nude strip club in Miami, Florida, called Gold Rush Cabaret…. The strip club payment is just the tip of this iceberg."

The reporters continue, "The Daily Beast reviewed White's 2022 primary campaign reports and found numerous items that boggled legal experts. The unusual expenses include a total of more than $100,000 in mysterious wire transfers and checks reported as paid to the campaign; hefty tabs at spicy nightspots; getaways at posh hotels in at least seven states; thousands of dollars in limousine services; unexplained cash withdrawals; eye-popping purchases from electronics, sporting goods, clothing, and musical instrument retailers; and the DribbleUp smart basketball training app that White himself admitted might be personal use."

Sollenberger and Racker note that White has been no stranger to controversy.

In the past, White was a left-wing Black Lives Matter activist. But he took a far-right return, allying himself with Bannon and others in the MAGA movement.

Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert for the watchdog group Documented, reviewed the Beast's findings and alleges that they are quite serious.

Fischer told the Beast, "We're not talking about small stuff. This takes us well outside the realm of FEC fines. This looks a lot like the kind of thing that people go to jail for."

Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), went over the Beast's FEC findings as well.

Libowitz told the Beast, "In nearly a decade of reviewing FEC disclosures, I've never seen a mess quite like White's disbursements…. This gets to the heart of the misuse of campaign funds. Donors spend that money to help you get elected. They don't think you’re going to spend $1,200 at a Florida strip club."

Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).

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